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Friday, 27 April 2012

Today England - tomorrow the World!!

A
fascinating conference took place at Harvard
Law School
on 12th April on the subject of – The Global Legal Profession. The
conference focussed on the need for a Global Legal Profession and how to train
global lawyers.

Now part of
me would love to be able call myself a Solicitor of THE WORLD, rather than the
more humble Solicitor of England and Wales. But vanity apart, the idea
is rather scary. I can see why multi-national companies who trade across
borders might be attracted to the idea of a single legal system that they could
rely on.

But for
most the world this misses the point of what a legal system is all about. It is
to ensure the smooth and safe running of a society. That must be affected by
local cultural factors. What might be a major concern in one region will have a
different emphasis somewhere else. So how could the laws on divorce in one country
be brought into line with another where the philosophy is completely different?

It is true
that many of the world’s biggest law firms operate across jurisdictions but
they have to work within the laws of that country.

I think
that that is where my biggest concern would lie. Globalisation, in reality,
normally means exporting of the standards of the West and in particular those
of the USA.
It is interesting that this initiative is coming from the USA’s top Law School.
I suspect that a global legal system and global lawyers would be heavily skewed
in favour of western standards and culture. How would those promoting this idea
react if there was a movement to create global laws that did not benefit the West?

Such a move
would also make the law and lawyers even more removed from ordinary citizens. Jonathan
Goldsmith, Secretary General of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe
writes in the Law society’s Gazette – ‘…it is not the global citizen – the person
on the street in India who needs a will,, or the abused wife in Brazil who
needs a divorce let alone the man or woman on the Clapham Omnibus in the UK –
who is talking about a global legal profession.’

The Law is
there to protect the rights of all members of society. Any move to take issues
to a global stage would undermine that aim and only benefit the wealthiest countries
at the expense of local citizens everywhere.